, missouri,i'mjimlehrer. thankyou, and good night. [applause] c-span [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2012] >> monday, an interview with former presidential candidate ross perot. he talks about the status of the economy, the deficit and debt, and how it has changed since his campaigns in 1992 and 1996. here's a portion of that interview. >> you established a third party. he ran twice. you established -- what was it? united we stand and then the reform party. do you think there is something wrong with the two-party system that has gotten, as we have seen, more acrimonious? >> it is almost impossible to do it. it would be a healthy thing if you could get it done and make it happen. they know they are going to be butchered from day one for what they have done. >> "usa today's" richard wolfe talks with ross perot. and to confine his article on monday in "usa today." >> my opponent and his running mate are big believers in top down economics. they basically think that if we spend another $5 trillion on tax cuts that f

topicswithjimlehrer. jimlehrerissuch a mild mannered guy, that i think he'll try to keep the tone of the debate civil. i think that will also -- i think that will also affect what we see and hear tonight. >> we shall see. jim acosta, jim, thanks for me there in denver. and we showed you mitt romney, that clip and that pretty contentious debate from late last year. for the president, though, you have to reach back to 2008 to get a hint of his debate demeanor. check this out with me. first, with hillary clinton at the time obama's rival for the democratic nomination for president. >> set of assertions made by senator clinton as well as her husband that are not factually accurate. and -- >> you like to pretend like the war started in 2007. you talk about the surge, the war started in 2003. and the -- and at the time, when the war started, you said it was going to be quick and easy you said you knew where the weapons of mass destruction were, you were wrong. >> so that was a little taste for you on how the president goes into attack mode. jessica yellin, chief white house corresponden

in october, moderatedbyjimlehrer. onceour live debate preview at 7:00 eastern and then the debate at 9:00. afterwards, your reaction in phone calls, e-mails, and tweets. fall was online at c-span.org. -- follow us. "washington journal" continues. host: john glastris is joining us to talk about your recent article in the magazine entitled "too important to fail." we are talking about the fairly recent consumer financial protection bureau. guest: that's right. cfpb is a regulatory agency set up to monitor and protect financial instruments. that's everything from mortgages to certain kinds of credit cards, payday loans, all sorts of things that average people use for savings and investment and so forth. they have not been regulated as products until now. it is the failure to regulate them as products that really precipitated the collapse of the financial system and our recession. host: you say that saving the cfpb is essential to restoring the economy and the american dream. guest: let's think about what has happened in the last few years. the average american family in 1990 the average a